Tips for taking a good choil shot

[Rangen]

I suppose it's not possible that I am the world's worst at taking choil shots. There's always someone better, and someone worse. But I think I'm in the running.

I wanted to start a thread. I had a theme, and a title, and everything, but part of the idea was to provide a nice choil shot of a knife. When I try to do that, I get something like this.

What are the tricks? How do you take a good choil shot, instead of a complete mess like in the picture?

 

[btbyrd]

Use a neutral background so the camera/phone's autofocus doesn't try to focus on a tapestry pattern (or whatever) instead of your knife.
Lenses have a minimum distance for them to focus properly; move your camera/phone back far enough from the choil for the lens to be able to focus well.

 

[Delat]

Use a light background like a paper towel and the choil will snap into focus - the lens needs some contrast and a paper towel won’t give it anything else to focus on.

Also hold the phone upside down to align the lens with the choil. No need to get super-close to the choil with the lens, just crop the photo after.

 

[timebard]

Yup, the upside-down phone camera trick is the way to go. With an octagonal handle you can just rest it on the flat, point towards a blank wall, and pull it back just far enough to get in focus.

 

[rickbern]

Spring clamp and raise the ambient light level. Plus one on a neutral background

 

[tostadas]

You can also put your finger next to the choil, so the camera lens focuses at the distance of your finger instead of where it's focusing currently which is the background.

Alternatively, if you have a manual focus mode on your camera/phone that works too

 

[M1k3]

If your phone has an option for a small amount of zoom in, that'll allow you to hold the phone farther away, to allow for focus, while getting a good closeup.

 

[RDalman]

Backlight background, fingers aligned with the heel (helps camera find focus), aligned lens with choil/edge, and find the distance where it focuses.

 

[rickbern]

I posted this thread at the beginning of my membership here, these choil shots are done with off camera flash pointing up to the ceiling and a close focusing lens. Gives you a good idea of how much texture is really there. There’s lots of shots in the thread

https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/thinning-a-gesshin-uraku-the-process.22599/

 

[Delat]

I posted this thread at the beginning of my membership here, these choil shots are done with off camera flash pointing up to the ceiling and a close focusing lens. Gives you a good idea of how much texture is really there. There’s lots of shots in the thread

https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/thinning-a-gesshin-uraku-the-process.22599/

Love those shots. The off camera flash + macro lens makes a huge difference in seeing the surface details.

 

[johnson]

Good lighting and manual focus if your phone allows it. Samsung phones in recent years (I use a Galaxy Note 9) has a Pro mode to allow you to control pretty much everything and has a tech called Focus Peaking as well. Works best if the camera and item are stationary. Or take video and screenshot it at individual frames.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/photography/tips-and-solutions/what-focus-peaking

 

[lemeneid]

All good tips.

I also use the app Camera+ on iPhone. It has manual focus and also highlights the part of the photo the shot is focused on currently. So you’re guaranteed to get crisp and clear shots of the choil within physical limits of your device.

 

[superworrier]

I put the knife between two of my whetstone boxes (Shapton Pro), then put a piece of paper behind.

 

[da_mich*]

-Don´t hold the knife in your hand
-Use a neutral background is helpful
-Always make pictures with daylight
-Don´t use autofocus! Manual Focus is the way to go
-Note the minimum focus distance of your lens